A LESS than ideal preparation didn’t help Country in their quest for bragging rights over City in their representative oztag clash at Bateau Bay on Saturday.
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The Port Macquarie half of the the Country side first met the other half at 7.30am, one and a half hours before their first game of the day.
Port Macquarie’s Laura Cudmore was presented with the honour of captaining the side shortly before the start of the match.
While her side was competitive in their four matches on the day, their City counterparts proved far too slick.
Cudmore’s Country side claimed a respectable 3-all draw in the third match of the day in their best performance that saw Port Macquarie’s Raquel Lievore cross the stripe.
Port Macquarie clubmates Claire Thurlow, Shelley Lang, Shelley Sprague, Ash Moorehead, Mandy McKinnon and Anna Gleeson also all made the trip.
It was the first time Country had played City.
“They had three or four Sydney teams to pick from so they had a lot more experience than us girls,” Cudmore said.
“It was another opportunity to play against some of the girls from other places and meet new people.”
Country suffered 1-0, 3-0 and 3-0 defeats, but Cudmore was still impressed with the performance of her side after they only had time for a quick half-hour training run before the first game.
“When you get to that level, everyone defends and tags really well,” she said.
“We were competitive and had a few more inexperienced players in our team, but Raquel gets better and better every game she plays.”
The representative players now have some time off before the national titles in December.
It’s something all players are looking forward to.
“We haven’t really stopped since we started for nationals last year,” she said.
Meanwhile, Country took out the men’s 45s clash with City with Port Macquarie’s strong representation of players contributing to the team’s success.
